Maliwal: Govt criticism on DCW, support from Khan, Negi A day after AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal accused her party government of “systematically dismantling” the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), two members of the panel on Wednesday called her allegations “malicious” and “fictional”. In their letters to Maliwal, DCW members Firdos Khan and Kiran Negi also urged the MP not to use the struggle of over 700 women employed by the commission and employed under grant programmes for her “personal political gains” since November last year. Maliwal on Tuesday wrote to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accusing his government of “systematically dismantling” the commission after she resigned as the head of the commission. There was no immediate response from Maliwal to Khan and Negi’s letters, which had the subject line: “Request to stop using the struggle of over 700 women for personal political gains.” Maliwal had resigned as DCW chairperson after her nomination to the Rajya Sabha by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
“Over 700 women working in the Commission and various grants programmes across the city have been left without salaries since November 2023, but you have made the fight of these women entirely about yourself and have made statements that the attack on DCW started after their resignations,” the letters said. Negi and Khan, in their letters, whose contents were similar, emphasised that Kejriwal and his government supported the DCW against the attack on the commission. “Madam, the attack on the Commission by vested interests of the establishment has been going on since 2016 and the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the elected government have always supported the Commission as a strong shield,” they said. “I humbly request you to refrain from attacking the elected government and instead expose the real culprits of this attack on the Hon’ble LG (Lieutenant Governor of Delhi) and the Commission, as you have done all these years, even two months ago”, they said in their letters.
The two members said that “a person like you (Maliwal), who has spent almost nine years at the helm of this Commission and is now a member of the highest legislature of the country, has made such malicious, misleading and fictitious claims”. Khan and Negi claimed that Kejriwal has always promoted and supported the DCW, thereby enhancing its operations. “Everyone knows that the Hon’ble Chief Minister has always promoted the DCW from all forums and worked day and night to empower them as the leading voice of women and girls not only in Delhi but across the country,” the letters said. They said it was “extremely painful” that despite “unprecedented” efforts to strengthen the DCW, he is now blaming the elected government.
